Refrigerant expansion control



April 9, i940.

EXPANSION CO! L C. A. OTTO REFRIGERANT EXPANSION CONTROL Filed Aug. 9, 1939 SUPPLY 3nventor attofnegs Pasta A... 9, 1940 I 2,196,777

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REFBIGERANT EXPANSION coN'rnor.

Carl A. Otto, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to Johnson Service Company, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application August 9, 1939, Serial No. 289,307

2 Claims. (01. 62-8) This invention relates to refrigeration, and extension 8. of the liquid line directly into the particularly to the control of the refrigerative header I. interposed between the chambers 6 effect of an evaporator in response to the temand l is a valve seat member 9. Mounted below perature of a space cooled by the refrigerative and connected to the housing is a housing ll 5 action of said evaporator. forming a cylinder closed at its lower end and 5 In the prior Patent No. 2,019,724, issued Noopen at its upper end to the chamber 6. vember 5, 1935, I describe and claim a thermo- A cup-like piston I2 is mounted to reciprocate static expansion valve in which the valve may be in the cylinder so that it is subject on its upper loaded in a closing direction in response to reface to supply pressure in the chamber 6. This 10 ductionof temperature. In Figure 2 of that piston I2 is held upward against the downward l0 patent, there is illustrated the use of a directthrust of such pressure by a coil compression acting thermostat of the type comprising a bulb spring 13. The piston carries on its upper face filled with expansible liquid and connected to a valve head Id of conoidal form as shown, ar-

operate a bellows motor against spring resistance. ranged to enter through the valve seat 9 and to Experience with valves of. this type has demonperform a throttling effect on flow from the 15 strated that it is difiicult to control with the dechamber 6 to the chamber 1, the degree of throtsired degree of precision an expansion valve of tling varying with the vertical position of the substantial size, unless the bulb of the space piston l2. thermostat be of unduly large size as compared The range of downward motion of the piston to the thermostatic valve. 12 is limited by an adjustable stop l5 which takes 20 The purpose of the present invention is to perthe form of a bolt threaded through the lower mit the use of an expansion valve of the type portion of. the housing II and sealed against redescribed and claimed in my prior patent and frigerant leakage by means of a closure cap l6. particularly the embodiment of Figure 2 of that Mounted in the piston I2 is an interchangeable patent to controlalarge fiow of refrigerant withchoke H. The flow capacity of the choke is 25 out requiring the use of a space thermostat of. adjusted by interchanging chokes of difierent substantial size. sizes, the capacity being selected on principles The invention contemplates the use of abooster which will be explained hereinafter. valve controlled by a thermostatic expansion Since the presence of the choke contemplates valve, the booster valve controlling a large flow the passage of a certain amount of refrigerant 30 of refrigerant to the evaporator, the expansion from the chamber 6 through the choke II, to the valve beingof quite small size and merely conspace l8 below the piston and within the housing v trolling the booster valve. In this way, a space II, it is possible to fit the piston l2 rather freely thermostat of small size may be used to control in the cylinder so that its friction will be as small a large evaporator and the space thermostat may as possible. This contemplates possible leakage 35 be made much smaller than it could possibly be between the piston and the cylinder, and if. such if the thermostatic valve itself controlled the enleakage can occur, the capacity of the choke ll tire flow of the refrigerant.. must be reduced to compensate. One practical embodiment of the invention is Leading from a port I9 which communicates 40 shown in the accompanying drawing. with the space I8 is a tube 2| which leads to. the 40 In that drawing, a header l is connected to inlet port 22 of an expansion valve of the type the tubes 2 of a refrigerative evaporator of any described and claimed in my'prior patent, abovesuitable form. Connected to the upper end of identified. The discharge connection 23 of that this header is the suction line 3 which leads to a valve is connected by a pipe 24 with the cham- 5 compressor or the like forming a part of a comher I. However, this connection can as well be pressor, condenser, evaporator circuit. 4 repremade directly to the header which is in free comsents the high pressure liquid line of such a cirmunication with chamber I. In fact, it can be cult. The compressor, or its equivalent, the conmade at any point in the circuit which is at evapdenser, and receiver if used, may be conventional orator suction pressure.

and are not illustrated. The construction of the expansion valve is fully 50 Mounted in the liquid line 4 in advance of its set forth in my patent above-identified and only connection with the 'header l is a booster valve a brief description sufficient to enable one to uncomprising a body 5. The liquid line 4 enters derstand the operation need be here given. The a chamber 6 and the refrigerant flowing to the inlet connection 22 leads to a seat 25 for a needle evaporator passes from a chamber 1 through an valve 26. This needle valve is adjustably 55 connection 22 and which is connected to the center of the head of a bellows diaphragm 28 whose upper end is sealed to the walls of the valve cham-- ber. Thus, suction pressure operates on the bellows 28 in a. valve closing direction. The force so developed is augmented by a spring 29 which encircles the shank of the needle valve 26 and reacts against the yoke above mentioned. It will be observed that the shank of the needle valve works in a guideway in cap 3| and thus maintains the alignment of the valve.

There is a thrust stem 32 which can react, in a downward direction only, against the yoke 21 at its point of connection with the diaphragm 28. The upper end of the stem 32 reacts against the upper end of a bellows motor 33 whose lower end is connected to a portion of the housing. The upper end is closed. This bellows motor is enclosed in a gas-tight case 34, the interior of which is connected by a tube 35 with a thermostatic bulb 36 mounted in heat exchanging relation with the suction line. Pivoted within the casing and extending through a slot in the stem 32 in such a way that it can react on said stem only in an upward direction (i. e., a direction to oppose motor 33) is a loading arm 31. This is pivoted at 38 to a portion of the housing and is pivoted at 39 to a stem 4|. The stem 4| is urged upward, that is, in a valve closing direction by a coil compression spring 42 which reacts between a portion of the housing and a flange on the upper end of the stem 4|.

A bellows motor 43 closed at its upper end overlies the upper end of the stem 4| and is in thrust relation therewith. The lower end of the bellows motor 43 is sealed to a portion of the housing. A casing 44, encloses the belows motor and is connected by a tube 45 witha thermostatic bulb 46 which contains an expansible fluid and is mounted in a space cooled by the refrigerative effect of an evaporator 2. Thus, on rising space temperature, expansion of the liquid bulb 4| develops downward pressure on bellows 43 and thus neutralizes in greater or less degree the stress of the spring 42. From this it follows that the valve 26 shifts in a closing direction in a degree which increases as space temperature falls. However, the parts 31 to 46 can never exercise a positive valve opening force on the valve 26. The thermostat may increase the closing bias of the valve, but it can never augment the opening tendency thereof because of the one-way thrust relationship between the lever 31 and the thrust stem 32.

This principle isfully developed in my prior patent and need not be elaborated. It may also be remarked that the patented structure includes a number of adjustments, the purpose of which is fully explained and whose presence is indicated in the drawing of the present application. It is deemed unnecessary, however, to elaborate these features.

When the device is in operation, liquid refrigerant 'flows at a very restricted rate past the piston l2, partly through the choke l1 and around the piston l2. The valve 26 supplies this refrigerant to the-evaporator and consequently to the suction line by way of pipe 24, extension 8, header The rate at which flow occurs past the valve threaded in a yoke 21 which straddles the inlet 26 is such that refrigerant flowing from the header to the suction line 3will always be slightly superheated. When space temperature falls, the thermostatic bulb 46 loads the expansion valve in a closing direction. The effect is to increase the superheat.

Since the rate of flow past piston I2 is constant and the rate of flow past the valve 26 is variable, the pressure below the piston in the chamber l8 will vary, becoming lower as the valve 26 opens. Thus, as the valve 26 opens in response to the dual thermostatic control above described, the valve M will open similarly. Consequently, the thermostatic expansion valve pilots the booster valve mounted in the housing 5 with the result that a very small flow of refrigerant past the valve26 controls a very much larger flow past the valve |4. At all times, the total rate of supply to the evaporator is such as to maintain some degree of superheat so that slugging of liquid into the compressor is precluded.

The mechanism within the housing 5 is the invention of another and no novelty is here claimed on the basis of that mechanism alone, the invention residing in the combination of a booster valve or its equivalent with the thermostatic expansion valve of the space temperature control type. Other boosters are known and may be used.

The thermostatic expansion valve is capable of considerable modification and other types responsive to space temperature have been proposed and may be substituted. Consequently, the device illustrated is to be taken as illustrative and not limiting.

The scope of the invention will be defined exclusively in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a refrigerating system the combination of meansv for supplying liquid refrigerant under pressure; an evaporator; a suction line leading from the evaporator; a main expansion valve for controlling the main supply of refrigerant from the liquid supply to the evaporator; yielding means biasing said valve in a closing direction; a double-acting pressure motor having a movable abutment connected to actuate said valve and separating two working spaces, one of which is conected with the liquid supply so that the pressure of supply urges the abutment in a valve opening direction; a connection for supplying liquid refrigerant from the supply to the other working space at a restricted rate; a second pressure operated valve controlling a connection from the second working space to the evaporator and subject in a closing direction to evaporator pressure; means for urging said second valve in an opening direction; a thermostat subject to the temperature of a space cooled by said evaporator; and a motor controlled by said thermostat and connected to increase the effective closing force of said second valve in response to falling space temperature.

2. The combination defined in claim 1 in which the means urging said second valve in an opening direction is a thermostatic motor subject to temperature in the suction line arranged to develop an opening force on the second valve in proportion to such temperature.

CARL A. O'I'IO. 

